AFP - North Korea has threatened to seize South Korean assets at a resort in its territory, Seoul officials said Thursday, amid growing impatience at the South's refusal to let its citizens travel there.

AFP - France will not open diplomatic relations with North Korea but plans to establish an office there to support non-governmental groups, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Thursday.

AFP - North Korea has executed a top financial official in a desperate attempt to quell public anger at its bungled currency revaluation, South Korean news reports and analysts said Thursday.

AP - North Korea executed a former senior official last week as punishment for the country's botched currency reform, a news report said Thursday.

AFP - A major US-South Korean military exercise ended Thursday without incident despite harsh North Korean criticism of the drill and its threats of retaliation for any aggression.

Reuters - North Korea has increased its missile arsenal by 25 percent in the past two years to about 1,000, expanding the threat the state poses to the region, the South's defense chief said Wednesday.

AP - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il may die within three years, a senior U.S. envoy said in Seoul last month, according to a report published Wednesday.

AFP - Somali pirates on Tuesday freed a chemical tanker with 28 North Korean sailors on board after receiving 3.5 million dollars in ransom, a maritime official said.

AP - Somali pirates freed a North Korean chemical tanker and its 28 crew Tuesday after the owners delivered a ransom, the European Union Naval Force said.

AFP - Hundreds of mothers whose children attend pro-North Korean schools in Japan rallied on Tuesday, demanding that the government include them in plans to make high school tuition free.

AFP - Tighter international sanctions and a host of domestic problems including chronic food shortages could spark regime collapse in North Korea, an influential think-tank says.

AP - North Korea should let farms produce freely and allow food to be sold in local markets because the communist government cannot provide enough food for its people, a U.N. human rights investigator urged Monday.

Reuters - North Korea has allowed Swedish diplomats to visit a U.S. citizen detained nearly two months ago after allegedly entering the country from China, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.

AFP - North Korea has allowed a Swedish diplomat to see an American detained in the communist state, the first time it has granted consular access, the State Department said Monday.

Reuters - Human rights in North Korea have worsened over the last few years and it is time for the United Nations Security Council to protect the people who are mistreated by their own government, a U.N. envoy said on Monday.

AP - North Korea plans to head back to the bargaining table early next month for talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program, a news report said Saturday.

AFP - A UN rights expert has accused North Korea's regime of turning the country "into one big prison," saying widespread abuses by Pyongyang put it in a class of its own.

AFP - A senior US official in charge of financial sanctions on North Korea visited South Korea this week for talks, a foreign ministry official said Friday.